As a frequent user of Google search and other Google products and features, I've decided to write a feedback blog including my suggestions and critiques.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Improving The Google Instant Feature

Google Instant is a new search feature that automatically returns pages of search results as a user types partial (e.g. "c") and complete (e.g. "cat") search keywords. See the Google blog post, Search: now faster than the speed of type.Currently, Google Instant displays search results only for the topmost entry on the Google Suggest drop-down list. If you search for "cat" or "car" or "computer" and type "c", Google displays a results page consisting only of "craigslist" entries.

"Craigslist" is the Google search prediction for users who begin Web searches with the letter "c".

In my opinion, Google Instant could be improved by displaying the search results page in sections.

If the search results page displays 12 entries, the first 3 search results could be for "craigslist", the next 3 for "CNN", the next 3 for "chase", and the last 3 for "costco". These sections correspond to the first 4 Google Suggest entries, instead of only to the highest Google Suggest entry.When a user wants to view search results only for the topmost Google Suggest entry, the user can click Search or hit Enter.